My family went to the Renaissance Festival in Atlanta, Georgia. It was a lot of fun watching all the skits, seeing all the shows, going on the rides, and all of the fun activities. My favorite part of the Renaissance Festival is when my Dad let me buy my first sword! When we were there, we saw a performer that roped kids, juggled flaming torches, and made jokes. The two best shows, according to Brina, were the dog and Birds of Prey Show.

Mabel Stark was born on December 9, 1889, in Princeton, Kentucky. Her parents were Hardy Haynie and Lela Haynie. Mabel Stark’s birth name was Mabel Haynie. Stark’s parents were farmers. Both of her parents died within a few months of each other and she was orphaned by the time she was 17 years old. She was the only child in her family and after her parents death she was sent to live with her Aunt.

Shortly after turning eighteen she left her Aunt’s house. Mabel attended school at St. Mary’s Hospital to become a nurse. Her background and history are a little more difficult to follow because she didn’t speak much of her past. Also, she changed her name more than once making it harder to find out all the details of her life before being a part of the circus.

She loved the circus even when she was a little girl. Her circus friends think that she started working in carnivals as a dancer after attending St. Mary’s nursing school. While working in carnivals and with other performers she discovered her love for big cats, especially tigers. She was convinced that she wanted to be a tiger trainer and continued to pursue that dream whenever possible. Stark’s first big cat performance was with two lions and two tigers. She worked for a brief time as a horseback rider, but really wanted to work with the big cats.

Stark was married at least five times, but never had any children. One of her earlier training positions was working with goats for performances in Al G. Barnes’ dog and pony show. Later she began train with Louis Roth, a famous “cat man” who would later become her husband. During that time Roth starting changing the way that trainers taught the animals. Instead of using negative force he would reward the animals when they did a training exercise correctly. Roth called it “gentling” the animals. He taught this positive reinforcement training method to Stark.

The first tigers she was given to train were the same three that had mauled the previous trainer to death. She did not let that discourage her from following her dream. She adopted a sick tiger cub named “Rajah” and raised him to perform a famous wrestling act with her. She trained him by romping and playing with the cub at the beach and actually keeping him as a pet in her home. After years of work she became known as a tiger trainer and people came to see her shows. By 1916, she was presenting the show’s major tiger act. She worked for The Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus for most of her training career. The Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus is still one of the most popular circus shows that you can see today.

She was the most famous female tiger tamer. She worked with the animals from 1911 to 1968. She was mauled many times, but kept coming back to train more tigers. Even into her old age she chose to continue spending her time training tigers. Her maiden name is Mary Haynie, but she goes by and is most well known by one of her married names – Mabel Stark.

Her favorite big cat was a tiger. Even though she preferred the tiger she worked with other big cats too. She had performances with lions, tigers, leopards, numerous big cats, and even other animals. As she continued to grow more famous she was able to work alongside tigers more frequently which she loved. The most big cats she had in one presentations was eighteen.

Mabel Stark was the first female to work with and train big cats. Two of the most common nicknames that she is referred to by is “Tiger Queen” or “The Lady with Tigers.” Mabel Stark, died in Thousand Oaks, California, on April 20, 1968. She had spent over fifty-seven years in the arena training and performing with tigers (and other animals).

She was a brave person. Mabel took a risk by spending hours each day inside cages with very powerful and potentially dangerous animals, yet it was exactly what she wanted to be doing! Being the be the first lady to train big cats is a really neat accomplishment. It was not common in her era for women to be involved in such a position, but she did it anyway. She is a great example of not letting the past hold her back and when she wanted something she went after it wholeheartedly. Her hard work, dedication, and love for the tigers paid off. She is best known for her skills and talents as the first female big cat trainer.

The poster above is advertising Mabel Stark circus show with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus. It is still often called “The Greatest Show on Earth” even today! The poster encouraged more people came to to see her and the big cats perform. The most tigers she had in the same arena at one time was 18 big cats.

A picture of Mabel Stark with a group of her tigers from one of her shows.

The show had 18 tigers in the same pen at one time.

Eighteen tigers in one show was the most

she had during a performance.

Mabel Stark training a tiger for the big show they are going to be in together. She enjoyed working with the tigers and used positive reinforcement to help encourage the tigers to want to learn and perform for her. It was a lot of work, but she loved it!

Above are some books about Mabel Stark and her life if you would like to learn even more about this amazing lady!

How does changing the binding agent from egg to egg substitute effect the height of the cupcake?

You are about to find out.

What you will need:

Chocolate Cupcake Mix (Used Pillsbury Traditional Chocolate Cake Mix)

Water

Oil

Egg Substitute

Eggs

Applesauce

Cupcake Liners (3 different colors)

3 Bowls

Ice Cream Scoop

Scale

Paper

Tooth picks

Ruler

3 Forks

Journal

Step by Step procedure:

Get the box of Chocolate Cupcake Mix.

Take the bag of cupcake mix out of the box.

Weigh the bag of chocolate cake mix and divide it into 3 equal parts.

Get 3 bowls

Distribute the chocolate mix into the 3 separate bowls (equal amount of cake mix in each of the bowls).

Divide the amount of additional ingredients you need by 3 and put an equal part in each bowl.

The oil and water will be the same for each mixture (2 Tablespoons & 2 Teaspoons of Oil and ⅓ cup of Water).

My mix used a total of 3 eggs so each mixture had the equivalent to 1 egg in each bowl. Use ¼ cup of Applesauce for 1st mixture, use Egg Replacer (that is equal to 1 egg) in the 2nd mixture, and use 1 egg in the 3rd mixture.

Put cupcake liners into the cupcake pan (use 3 different colors of liners).

Spray the cupcake liners with oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Use an ice cream scoop to put the mixed cake mix from 1 bowl into 1 color of liner, 2nd cake mixture in 2nd color of liner, and 3rd cake mixture in the 3rd color cupcake liner. The different color liners will help you keep track of which one contains applesauce, egg replacer, and egg after baking.

Put the cupcakes in the oven.

Bake cupcakes for 10 to 15 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean.

Take the cupcakes out and let them cool.

Cut paper into 1 inch squares and poke a toothpick through the middle of each one.

Gently push the toothpicks into the cupcakes. Pull the toothpick out and measure the how far along the toothpick the paper moved to get an accurate measurement of the height of the cupcake.

The final step is the easiest and most fun. Share the cupcakes with family and friends! They are tasty plain, frosted, or decorated.

I discovered over all the experiments that eggs actually produce the tallest cupcakes. The binding agent in eggs really does make them rise higher. The other two substitutes I used applesauce and egg replacer still allowed the cupcakes to rise,but not as high and had a different consistency in the batter. I did not one interesting thing the cupcakes with the applesauce tended to spoil more quickly then the ones with eggs or egg replacer as well as take a longer time cooking in the over. Although the applesauce cupcakes were my favorite ones because they tasted delicious!

Which binding agent in your cupcakes produce the tallest cupcakes? Did you have the same results? What would you do differently next time?

I would love to hear how it went for you too. I enjoy cooking and sharing my goodies with family and friends! My parents did the calculations with me and we figured out that I have made over 410 cupcakes in the past 3 months doing my Science experiments. My friends at school have really enjoyed helping me eat all the cupcakes too! 🙂